(Complete)Ainsley Douglas has been on more blind dates than she can count, but each one is worse than the one before. Although living alone can be lonely, she isn't looking for happily ever after. With a career she loves and some of the best friends...
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The last thing David Gillespie wanted to do was to attend his Arlington High School ten year reunion. The day after Thanksgiving was supposed to be for shopping, eating leftovers, and watching college football. David didn't shop until the last minute and favored gift cards. He used to buy fun things for his nephew, but even Ian had grown up. As for the leftovers, they didn't have very many. With Ian away for Thanksgiving, their meal felt lonely with parents, their two grown sons, and the smallest turkey sold at Stop & Shop.
David shouldn't complain because Ian was a freshman at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, so he saw him all the time, although Ian's mother missed him just as Andrew had for years. Note to self: Always wear protection. Sharing a child was hard on everyone involved, especially when the parents lived in different states. Two summers ago, David took his nephew to see his half-sister. It was the first time David saw Ian as a big brother.
He would rather play cards with his parents, but he put work clothes on even though it was his day off and waited for his best friend Brian to pick him up at his Cambridge apartment. They had been friends since third grade when Brian moved to town. All the girls flocked around the new kid, but the boys hung back. At recess, David picked up a foam football and approached him. Brian looked uncomfortable surrounded by girls. David held up the ball and said, "you wanna," and the rest was history.
In high school, the two were firmly in the middle, not popular and not losers. They took school seriously, but not like the real geeks. The only reason David was intrigued to attend his reunion was to see if his brother was right. Andrew said after ten years everything reversed, the popular kids were the losers and the geeks were the successful ones. A lot could happen to a body during its twenties, shoulders broadened, skin cleared up, even most penises reached their full potential after graduation.
The two boys turned men had done okay for themselves. Brian was a pilot flying for Delta Connection, a smaller subsidiary to the large airline. David graduated from Worcester Polytech, a well-respected university with a degree in mechanical engineering. He worked for General Electric and ninety percent of the time felt like an actual adult. With thirty approaching, he would rather stay home alone than hang out in a crowded club. David had never hooked up in a club. He had made out a few times, but lacked the suave phrases necessary to invite a girl back to his apartment. When his brother was his age, Andrew was a part time single parent with a nine-year-old son. Maybe the Gillespie boys were destined to be single.
They reached the Elks Lodge socially late. Let the former popular kids have a few beers before the successful alumni appeared. The drab ballroom had been decorated with balloons.
"Tacky," Brian whispered.
David nodded as he took in the crowd. It was a decent size. As his eyes stopped, he smirked at the prom king and star of the football team who stood with the former cheerleader. Still together. Kudos to them, but they both looked five years older than David. The jock carried at least thirty extra pounds as he tipped his cup of beer to his lips. The once bubbly girl looked like she lost her soul to motherhood. Her body showed signs of child bearing. Her perky breasts that even David thought about touching had lost their perk. Andrew was right.
